Recently I had the opportunity to join hundreds of others at a wonderful celebration—the dedication of the new St. Therese Catholic Church Sanctuary. The history of St. Therese Church is amazing especially considering the fact that the first church structure many decades ago was a post-World War II military building! During the last few years I've come to understand the importance of St. Therese to Fort Wayne's Catholic community as well as to the community in general. Congratulations to Father Joe Rulli and his parishioners on this great accomplishment!

Speaking of local church activity of importance to the entire community I've been told that the Avalon Missionary Church will host a Focus on Health preventative health screening at 9 am on Sat., May 3rd. This program is in keeping with the strong public service history of many churches in the "Waynedale News" area. Call the church for further details.

As you may be aware, City Council has been studying the potential benefits of early elimination of that portion of the inventory tax that wasn't already ended by our state legislators. The inventory tax has long been felt to be a drag on economic development and should probably go. The problem is that many of those who are the strongest advocates of inventory tax elimination seem not to be aware of (or to be ignoring) the fact that elimination of the inventory tax essentially equals a multimillion increase in residential (and business) property taxes. Council has been receiving input from a variety of individuals who might be affected by inventory tax elimination but to date there's been little input from the property taxpayers or anyone with their interests at heart. With that thought in mind after many telephone calls I've tentatively arranged for a Purdue professor who is a tax specialist to meet with City Council at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, May 13th. He'll be able to explain how to best protect property taxpayers from millions of dollars in extra taxes if an early phaseout of the inventory tax is passed by Council.

Recently I was asked why new streetlights haven't been installed on Hiltonia in Lake Shores as previously planned. This may not seem like a significant issue but it is to everyone who lives on that street. I'm checking out that matter as I promised. The project is fully funded and should move forward soon but I need to obtain more information and will report back in the next Councilman's Corner 2 weeks from now.

Enjoy the warm weather and give me a call with any questions or suggestions!